The word social networking rose from obscurity to main stream last year. It could very well be the focal point of the second round of web. We see a number of companies creating huge virtual communities for social, professional and romantic interests. These companies like Myspace, Orkut, Tribe, LinkedIn, Friendster, Indiapage and Facebook, rolled out new or improved services that let users create online identies with their circle of real-life acquaintances. The idea was mainly to let users build online profiles that advertised their interests and to help them connect with friends and friends-of-friends around one of those interests — whether it be finding a job, finding a new venture partner, making a sale, or finding a jogging buddy.
Majority of these companies except friendster and myspace had a sluggish start. However most of these companies grew exponentially recently due to the by nature of social networking. They have also incorporated a number of money making programs in these sites to make it viable in the long run. Today there is no doubt social networking is a real business with real business plan.
Most of the social networking sites are based on broad vertical markets today. For example LinkenIn as the professional group, facebook for college campuses etc.. We believe the next round of social networking would be for smaller closely knit groups. For example sites as part of communities exist in the real world. Examples are local youth groups, schools, colleges, business associations, and independent businesses. One of the main challenge has been the time and cost associated with the software required to create these web applications for smaller groups with limited budgets.
The user created content in the social networking sites is the greatest asset for the communities. Value creation at the edge is a great way to keep the user communities adding value to the main entity it serves, let it be a business or social organization.
iScripts has introduced a social networking software platform called iScripts Socialware. This is a new open source software to create social networking sites in a few minutes. A highly customizable software which can be used to create social networking sites for different communities. The number of customizable themes are targeted for different communities.
This software is available for purchase at http://www.iScripts.com/socialware . An online working demo is also available at the site. This script is written in PHP with mySQL backend and is currently priced at $149.95.
A number of common modules like chats, forums, bogs etc.. are available. Also some unique modules virtual gift store etc.. are also available to make your site into revenue generating site. Few more of the modules are planned for the next product release, which are already into the planning stage.
Here is some of the main features implemented in iScripts SocialWare software:
· Private Mailbox
iScripts SocialWare provides a mailbox for all its users with this a user can compose, draft, check mails. This is to allow private conversations between users without leaving the site.
· Blogs
Create a unique blog using iScripts SocialWare. Users can share thoughts, opinions, stories, favorite music, movies, books and anything else with others .Admin can add different blog templates for the users to select from.
Chat
Have online chat with other visitors on the live chatroom.
Forum
Create any number of discussion forums and make comments on others forums
Groups
Stay connected to friends who share similar interests or affiliations by joining a group .This will allow members to create a community within a large community.
Gifts
Send real gifts to other users by paying the amount to the site owner if payment is enabled or virtual gifts to other users by paying virtual money if payment is disabled.
Events
Users can post events and organize parties and get-together quickly and easily by using this event management.
Classifieds
Users can post any number of classified ads on any categories .They can send responses to classifieds posted by other users.
Photo Album
Users can create photo album and add any number of photos to these albums.
Powerful search
The powerful search lets users to search and find users matching various search criteria.
Communities
Users can build communities using “invite a friend” feature.
Multiple Administrators
The site admin can create multiple admins with different permissions so that the site could be managed by various admins with varying powers.
Module Management
The site admin can enable or disable decide which modules needs to displayed to the user.
Centralized Site Management
The settings panel lets admin to predefine user approval type, album approval type , payment gateway information etc
Multiple Themes
The admin can set different themes so the site appearance changes. Currently there are 4 themes. These themes include social, professional, romantic etc..
Switch Mode
The admin can switch the mode between live and down for maintenance , so the user can understand if the site has been closed for maintenance.
As with all other iScripts products, iScripts SocialWare is an open source software product. This means customers can modify the software to meet their specific requirements. iScripts also offers customization services for customers. If you believe the software is close to your requirements, we can customize the software to meet your exact needs. This is true for both look and feel as well as functionalities.
A install wizard is available to install the software in few easy steps. However iScripts can install it for you, if you choose.
